The present invention is directed to a disc launcher and more specifically to a hand held disc launcher having resilient means thereon cooperating with the disc to hold the disc in place and to impart a spinning motion to the disc upon release from the launcher.
The use of hand held launchers having a target trap thereon for launching clay pigeon targets is old and well known in the trap shooting art. Such devices are generally complicated in construction and are comprised of a relatively large number of parts which are interconnected together with suitable springs or resilient members in order to hold the disc in position during the initial throwing action and to impart a spinning action to the disc as it is released from the launcher.
A typical prior art construction is shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 1,700,880, to Camp, wherein a handle 1 has a resilient portion mounted thereon having a curved extension for receiving a stepped target disc. An arm is pivotally mounted on the resilient portion in opposition to the extension and is spring biased towards the extension in order to hold the disc between the pivoted arm and the extension. A rubber member is mounted at the outermost end of the pivoted arm and is maintained in engagement with the disc so that upon imparting a whipping motion to the launching device the spring biased pivoted arm will be forced away from the extension due to the centrifugal force acting on the disc thereby allowing the disc to leave the launcher. As the disc leaves the launcher it will be frictionally engaged with a rubber collar whereby a spinning action will be imparted to the disc.
A similar hand operated target projecting device is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,537,438, to Reed. However in Reed a curved resilient arm is mounted in opposition to the extension of the handle member in order to hold the target disc therebetween. The outermost end of the resilient arm is provided with a spring clip 13 which frictionally engages the top and bottom surfaces of the disc so that upon launching the disc a spinning movement will be imparted to the disc.
Other types of disc launchers rely primarily upon the inherent resilient force of a flexible impeller having one end fixedly mounted on the hand held launching device with the other end engaged with the disc so that upon release of a latch the resilient impeller launches the disc into space with a spinning action. An example of such a launcher is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,215, to Kettlestrings.. PG,4